Manipur landslide: No more bodies found, 9 still missing

Imphal, July 12

Search operations by multiple agencies, including the army, continued on Tuesday for the 13th day to locate nine more missing people after the devastating landslide at a railway construction site in Manipur's Noney district, where at least 52 were killed, officials said.

A defence spokesman said that till Monday, 52 bodies, mostly of Territorial Army soldiers were recovered, while no more body was unearthed on Tuesday.

An official of the Noney district administration said that the search operations by the Army, Territorial Army, the National and State Disaster Response Force has been going on uninterruptedly since the catastrophic landslide on the intervening night of June 29 and 30, burying alive a large number of people, mostly Territorial Army, Railway employees, workers and villagers in the debris.

Eighteen persons were rescued alive and hospitalized in the incident.

State Relief and Disaster Minister Awangbow Newmai, who visited the spot sixth time on Tuesday, said that a review meeting would be held after three days in which the continuation of the search operation would be decided.

He said that the review meeting has been called on considering the hardship faced by the officials and volunteers who had been carrying out the search operation for 13 days without any break.

The Territorial Army soldiers were deployed at Tupul for security to the railway works, part of the Rs 14,320 crore broad gauge Jiribam-Imphal railway project, being executed by the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), to connect the Manipur capital on the rail network by 2024.